Yes, you read that title correctly. . . I’m posting here the text of an article which I found in the Vietnamese magazine “Vietnam” from 1976. It is an article about a recent visit by a delegation from Vietnamese Press and Television to Democratic Kampuchea.

There has got to be a wealth of information in Vietnam about Demcratic Kampuchea and the years immediately following it. I wish someone would research that topic.

In any case, I’m just going to post the text of this article, as it’s interesting enough on its own. The title of this article is “Kampuchea Today – Construction Sites Everywhere. . .”

“In our Kampuchea today—everywhere there is rebuilding. . .”

This was the subject of a dance performed by the Kampuchean People’s Song and Dance Ensemble in honor of the Vietnamese Press and Television delegation which recently paid a friendship visit to Democratic Kampuchea.

During our trip which covered almost 1,000 kilometers of the land of Kampuchea, we saw great changes going on all over this country.

Along the National Highway, besides traditional houses-on-stilts, new flats of the same size and design had sprung up. These are houses supplied free to former city-dwellers who had returned to the countryside to take part in agricultural production. Groups of people, some of them a hundred strong, set out to do irrigation work or labor on the paddy fields.

“There is, and there can be, no place for idlers on the land of Kampuchea today, a local cadre told us.

Kampucheans often say: “Wherever there is water, there is rice.” That is why, at the same time as replanning the crop fields, turning small plots of land into fields about one hectare each, the people are striving to carry out a water conservancy policy. This plan for building a network of irrigation ditches and channels for the plains to ensure water to one and a half million hectares has been up to now one third fulfilled. Thanks to water conservancy, the Xpeu, Barai, Tangsakang, Rohan, Soaidonkeo and other rice growing areas have now developed double-cropping fields. In other places we passed, everywhere we aw newly built irrigation networks dividing the paddy fields into regular squares.

Progress in the national rehabilitation of the Kampuchean people can be seen in many other fields. Almost all the industrial production establishments have been restored and a large number of them are already producing goods. In 1976, Kampuchea’s exports of rubber are estimated at 20,000 tons. Handicrafts and other trades catering directly for the people’s needs, such as textiles, towels, mosquito netting, soya sauce, fish sauce, etc. have been restored. Now, moreover, each co-operative farm has its own medical station.

In the fraternalland of Kampuchea, we were able not only to feel an atmosphere of enthusiasm among the working people and to see their many achievements, but also to appreciate the close friendship between Kampuchea and Viet Nam. Wherever we went, we were received and treated like dear members of the same family by the people and cadres.

Text: Phan Hien

Photographs: Van Bao

(In the Vietnamese Press and Television delegation back from a friendly visit to Democratic Kampuchea)